MATEWAN

At his best John Sayles was one of the greatest political filmmakers to have come out of America and "Matewan" may be his masterpiece. It's about the efforts to create a Trade Union in the mining town of Matewan, West Virginia in the 1920's and it's one of the great left-wing American movies, beautifully written and directed by Sayles, magnificently photographed by Haskell Wexler and superbly acted by everyone including Sayles himself as a hellfire and damnation preacher.

Chris Cooper is the organizer, James Earl Jones, the leader of the African-American miners, (it's about a lot more than just worker's rights), and best of all, a very young Will Oldham, better known today as Bonnie Prince Billy amongst other names, as the young preacher who finds political succour in the Gospels. Of course, the difference between this and something like "Norma Rae" is that this lacks a triumphalist central character or a couple of big name stars like "The Molly Maguires" so it wasn't really a hit. Nevertheless, it knocks spots off the competition and shouldn't be missed.